[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Creator:Â Joss Whedon
Writer:Â Bryan Edward Hill
Artist:Â Gleb Melnikov
Colorist:Â Roman Titov
Letterer:Â Ed Dukeshire
Reviewer: Tony Farina
Summary
Angel #7 begins with a dream…a nightmare really. Fred has been captured by a demon worshiping nutjob called Lilah. Nothing good is going to come from this except she does get a free helicopter ride out of the deal, so there is that. Lilah explains that her group runs L.A. and that Fred is special and powerful.
Meanwhile back at Fred’s place, Gunn and Spike get to know each other. That is off to a rough start as they try to out dude each other. Luckily, Lilith is there and she is not having any of their childish nonsense. She explains that Fred has “magick with a K” (sorry spell check) and that the cultists whom have captured her think she is the chosen one for Baphomet.
To find Fred, Lilith takes them to a karaoke bar for demons to meet Lorne, who, sings karaoke and can help them find Fred but first, they have to sing. For real. This is the Whedonverse after all, not everything can be so heavy.
Positives
Gleb Melinikov is so good. The work he does in this book is both terrifying and emotive. I read Angel twice because I enoyed watching the facial expressions of the characters change. He makes these characters seem like three dimensional actors. It is so brilliant. See below. Do you need the words? You do not. Everything is clearly spelled out.
Speaking of brilliant, Bryan Edward Hill must have a clone. How is it possible that he is able to write at such a high level across so many companies? I love his pacing. His dialog is always funny when it needs to be and painful when it needs to be. He lets his artist work and he explains with words when he must. It is masterful. Taking existing characters and making them your own is so hard to do and yet, if you didn’t know better, you would think that Hill invented these folks.
Negatives
Angel #7, like most of the Angel series so far is light on the titular character, but we know he is off in the Hellmouth so we can give him a break. This series is so, so good.
Verdict
I really love the direction this is going. I think the creative team is the best in the business. It is funny that in the TV universe, I like Angel the least, but so far, I like the comic the best. It doesn’t make sense, but it could be that because I didn’t have such strong feelings for these characters before, I am open to Hill’s new take on them. It could be that Hill is insanely talented and will be an Eisner nominee for best writer next year (I suspect that will be the case). Either way, pick this up and enjoy.
